How to make a sandwich! Er… they had sliced bread already, right?
Indistinguishable: I hope that before going crazy you would convince Galois that duels are stupid, and hand over a some antibiotic pills to Abel.
Well, alright, but not before I first take priority for their ideas…
I’d be so screwed. Okinawa 200 years ago? I might be able to get by as some sort of circus freak. Or I could hide in a cave and live off the sea for a while. Wouldn’t be pretty. I certainly wouldn’t be able to communicate well enough to teach them much.
if you modify the op to allow us to land someplace where we wont die of exposure quite a bit.
but under the current rules, I know how to build a debris shelter so I would probably survive the first couple days. I am within easy walking distance of both the Cedar river and lake Washington so I might be able to find fish I could catch (not really sure how that would work since I am in socks and a pair of jeans that the ass just ripped out of) but the Cedar is a pretty shallow river so I could probably make some kind of trap. Also having lived here for my entire life I have a pretty good idea what berries are edible…to bad there arent any berries to eat this time of year.
if I survive long enough to find some nice local Indian tribe to take me in I could teach them how to build the above debris shelter (assuming they dont already know) perhaps some basic building techniques, farming perhaps? I know a hell of a lot about production but I dont know what you would do with a huge pile of blankets (or whatever crafts the locals were making back then) but at least they would be great quality!!
some basic medicine, I could probably work out how to make soap from ashes. I understand most of the basics as far as keep em warm and give em water (boiled water). building wise I could probably improve the standard longhouse to something warmer in the winter without to much effort.
now if you drop me some place a bit more civilized (like say England) that would change things dramatically
Highly unlikely given that 1809 was well into the enlightenment. People weren’t burnt at the stake after the end of the 17th century, AFAIK.
I’d instruct the original settlers/discoverers of Australia that the land they happened upon was going through a really terrific climatic season that was unlikely to recur for many, MANY years.
IOW, drought and poor seasons are the norm, so don’t bother bringing stock and/or grains over because they’ll likely fail…if not in your generation, then surely the next, and for many after.
Let’s say I get transported to my home city of Washington, DC instead of Kabul (please?). At the time, my neighborhood was a dairy farm so I start walking south a few miles. Mostly, I would start educating people on public health like get the poop out of the drinking water, hand washing for doctors and before eating, malaria is caused by mosquitos and not miasma, etc.
Also, I could start talking about nature vs. nurture, that there aren’t differences in the races on things like intelligence, etc. and maybe we want to rethink the whole slavery thing (that might get me shot pretty quick), and maybe it would be a good idea if Mr. Jefferson doesn’t piss of the Brits and dismantle the navy (or at least invest in some fire insurance for some public buildings). And finally, BTW Mr. Jefferson, let me tell you about DNA and testing who is related to whom, what would keeping that little bit of info to myself be worth?
I will tell them to buy Microsoft.
I would invent the bycycle as we know it (not the pedalless,chainless hobby horse that was around roughly in that period as a novelty),tyres might be a problem but I reckon I could get a friendly blacksmith to fabricate everything else under my direction.